


soul deep

by sadlikeknives



Category: Benjamin January Mysteries - Barbara Hambly
Genre: Alternate Universe - Night World Fusion, M/M, Pre-Relationship, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-31
Updated: 2019-10-31
Packaged: 2021-01-15 04:20:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 608
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21247376
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sadlikeknives/pseuds/sadlikeknives
Summary: Abishag Shaw gets called out to investigate a murder at the Orleans Ballroom.Also, he's a werewolf, and the girl in the Maid Marian costume who comes to report said murder is a vampire.





	soul deep

**Author's Note:**

  * For [DoreyG](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DoreyG/gifts).

> Dear DoreyG, your prompt for a BenJan Night World AU was GENIUS, and I had to do something with it. I hope you enjoy this little snippet.

Abishag Shaw had known it was going to be a long night since he'd awakened, close to dusk, after a few hours of sleep snatched away from the chaos of carnival season in New Orleans. They were all long nights, this time of year. He had not anticipated quite how long until a lamia girl dressed up like Maid Marian hurried into the Cabildo and, after looking around to get her bearings, headed straight for his desk like she knew him, though of course she did not. Scented him, more like. The vampires might look down their noses at his kind, but they'd come to him over a human ten times out of ten.

"Excuse me," she said in French, looking uncertain if he would understand her. When he nodded for her to continue, she said, "There's been a murder at the Orleans Ballroom."

Shaw thought several swear words in quick succession, but only asked a few pertinent questions before gathering who he would need to secure the scene—and the witnesses, hell, the men would all light out through that tunnel—and setting out to see what could be done in the interests of justice.

Some rich man had just gotten finished explaining to him that if they—who were all suspects—could not be questioned anonymously, then they would refuse to allow themselves to be questioned at all, which was just so typical it made him want to rend something to bloody bits, when someone said softly, "Lieutenant?" and he turned to find a dark-skinned man who might actually be taller than him—another lamia, too; Shaw wondered if he was related to the girl who brought the news—and who...oh.

He'd thought the stories were just stories.

He realized he'd been staring for a mite long, and that, at least outwardly, the lamia showed no sign of the realization Shaw had just had. Shaw remembered that, too, from the stories, that it took some people longer than others to figure it out. The man made the simple and brilliant suggestion of having the women identify the men, and explained that it had been, indeed, his sister—half-sister, he said—who had come to the Cabildo to bring word, when Froissart would have moved the body to the attic and sent someone tomorrow, if ever, to avoid all the fuss.

His soulmate was smart, and sharp, which wasn't always the same thing. He was also a man of color, and lamia, which meant that in one world people would think the match uneven and improper for one reason, and in the other they would think it—well, the humans wouldn't conceive of it at all, and that was its own set of problems, but Shaw didn't need to go looking for the future's problems before he'd even solved the ones they had right now, and certainly not before Monsieur Janvier knew for himself what had hit Shaw like lightning when their eyes first met. He was also the man who'd been nearly the first to the body, which meant someone was going to try to pin it on him to make things tidy, which meant Shaw was going to have to solve the case before they managed it.

One thing at a time, he reminded himself firmly, and asked Janvier—he would have to get the man's first name—to play some music to keep everyone occupied while they ran through the unending interviews to come.

It was going to be a long night, all right, and tomorrow was going to be even longer, but there was a ray of unexpected light on the horizon.


End file.
